Playing Ruff With Mitt Romney Fundraiser

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has again raised the hackles of anti-animal cruelty activists, this time by partying down with a Republican fundraiser who was embroiled in a dog barbecuing scandal during his rambunctious college days.

Dogs Against Romney founder Scott Crider is incensed that the former Massachusetts governor has joined forces with Fred Malek, a veteran of the Nixon, Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, who is set to host a “birthday fundraiser” for Ann Romney on April 16.

According to a Washington Post story from 2006, Malek in 1959 was detained by police in Peoria, Ill., after the discovery of a bloody car and conflicting accounts from the admittedly “drunk out of their minds” folks involved. The charges against Malek were eventually dropped after the actual perpetrator, Andrew P. O’Meara, copped to killing and roasting a stray dog as part of some warped survivalist training.

Crider has for years criticized Romney concerning the suspect treatment of his family’s dog, Seamus, during their infamous 1983 road trip.

“What is it with Mitt Romney and animal cruelty?” Crider posits on his website